COURSES FOR PLAYERS AND TEACHERS

PLAYERS KEY

The young musicians from the 2021 Thrive City String Boot Camp

ALEX CHEUNG

The Martinů Quartet takes a Playwip course in Jindřichův Hradec, Czech Republic

THY PHOTO KRISTIAN AMBY

Performing at the Vorupør Kirke in Thisted Denmark, as part of the Thy Chamber Music Festival

AMELIA MERRIMAN

IN MY EXPERIENCE Player

THY CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL, DENMARK

Megan Yip cello

One particular thing about this festival is how honest and sincere everyone is. We’re all there to make music, enjoy each other’s company and connect. The volunteers do a fantastic job. I really can’t say enough about how helpful, warm and kind they are. I heard about the festival from a friend of mine who couldn’t stop talking about it. She told me that it was an amazing place, with a tight-knit and wholesome group of people, so I auditioned and took part in the festival’s 2021 edition. It’s a very small group with only about 15 musicians, not including the wonderful faculty who we also get to play with.

The location is gorgeous and it’s so small that you feel like you’re in a home; nothing is sterile. Our concerts are all around Denmark, with audiences coming to support us from all over. We also play in school concerts and perform folk tunes and music by Danish composers. It can get quite busy, especially in the second week with all the concerts, but time is always set aside for us to hang out with each other, especially over some coffee and cake! It’s quite a short festival, so we want to savour as much as we can.

As simple as it sounds, my favourite part of the festival was just playing with others. Everyone has something different to offer, not just musically, but also in terms of personality and interests. We come from different parts of the world and to learn how others see music is really enriching. The faculty members are also so open and happy for you to play for them. I remember playing with someone who was into improvisation. And his mentality of experimentation still influences me when I practise and perform today. I’m still in touch with those I met, and all of us want to go back.

Violin tutor Rainer Schmidt takes a ProQuartet course in France

PROQUARTET

The musicians of the Moritzburg Festival Academy in Germany perform a 'Long Night of Chamber Music' in 2021

PATRICK BÖHNHARDT

String players from the 2021 Music Without Borders course in Hungary

CSABA EMBER

Participants old and new at the Musicando Academy in Tuscany

COURTESY MUSICANDO

IN MY EXPERIENCE Player

PACIFIC MUSIC FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA ACADEMY, JAPAN

David Mason viola

The Pacific Music Festival is one of those events that everyone talks about at conservatoire. I remember my peers saying, ‘I’m auditioning for this orchestral festival, and you should too!’ I thought, ‘Why not? I’ve never been to Japan.’ I ended up taking part in three sessions, from 2012 to 2014. It was a big deal because I’d never left America and now I had a free flight and a paid-for festival. Once you arrive in Japan you’re greeted by the festival staff, who are thrilled to have people coming from all over the world. The atmosphere was great, and all of us were pumped to play such massive repertoire. In my first year we played Petrushka, Tchaikovsky's Symphony no.6 and Strauss's Alpine Symphony. It was invaluable for me to play so many important audition excerpts in context.

By playing with professional musicians and conductors, I saw how professionals interacted and observed different rehearsal approaches. What I enjoyed was that they weren’t there to coddle you but to be your colleague for a few weeks and mentor you.

Days can be intense, but there’s so much adrenaline involved in meeting new people and being in a new place, so you have the energy to do it. I also loved how the festival incorporates elements of Japanese culture. We hear Japanese spoken around us, are offered Japanese food, and our last concerts are in various Japanese cities. The support and excitement from audiences across the country have stayed with me to this day.

My favourite part of my three years there was my first festival with maestro Fabio Luisi. He was very demanding of us and made us play at the highest level. It really made me grow as a person and kept me going back. The fact that I am now the principal violist in the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra is in part because the festival opened me up to working abroad and made me realise there were opportunities everywhere. For those auditioning, I would say: if you get in, go! You won’t regret it.

MARC CASTELLÀ BOVÉ

IN MY EXPERIENCE Player

AIMS – INTERNATIONAL MUSIC ACADEMY OF SOLSONA, SPAIN

Gerard Flotats cello

I am originally from Solsona and have attended the festival since 2013. I think that even if I wasn’t from the city, I would have still gone back every year. What I love most about it is how many concerts there are to perform in and watch. We have street concerts every day, where we can play anything we want. People from the city come and watch because it’s free. We also have the festival concerts in the evenings, in which we often play with the wonderful faculty. We prepare this chamber repertoire in advance, and often have only a few days to rehearse. It’s great to see how professionals prepare in such a short amount of time. In some years I have played in concerts every day! Sometimes you will play the same piece at the beginning of the festival and again at the end, so you can see how much you’ve improved. You also get around four lessons with your teacher within the ten days, so there’s a lot going on.

There’s a place for everyone at the festival. It’s very relaxed and no one wants to be better than anyone else, because there are so many different levels. Compared to other programmes I have attended, the teachers in Solsona are very close to the students. You can talk to them easily, go and have coffee with them and get to know their personal side.

The city is very small, calm and safe, so you don’t need to worry about anything other than playing music with your friends. The sense of community makes it feel like a family.

And even though there are a lot of people, being there for ten days is long enough to get to know everyone. I am still in contact with a group of friends from my first year, who I have played with ever since.

A violin recital at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland (see page 23)

GSTAAD PHOTO THERESA PEWAL. CARTER PHOTO PAULA MEJÍA ESPAÑA

IN MY EXPERIENCE Player

GSTAAD MENUHIN FESTIVAL & ACADEMY, SWITZERLAND (see page 23)

Willard Carter cello

I attended the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in the summer of 2019, and because I loved it so much I returned in 2021. The high level of playing and everyone’s enjoyment in making music was stronger than anywhere else I’d been. There is such a sense of community among the students and teachers. And there wasn’t a single person that didn’t contribute to the festival’s positive energy. The teachers’ enthusiasm stays with me to this day, as well as what I learnt on a personal level by interacting with other students. You get to know each other really well, which is important for chamber music.

In 2021, separately from the chamber festival, I was lucky enough to play Elgar's Cello Concerto with the orchestra, which was led by young conductors. Sometimes I would meet up with them to go through my piece. They all had such strong ideas about the work, and so did I. I learnt a lot from those discussions. It was also invaluable to be given so much time to rehearse with the orchestra, which almost never happens for professional soloists. We worked in depth, and I created a relationship with everyone. Playing the concerto with that orchestra was one of the best experiences of my life.

Gstaad is such a beautiful place, so I made sure to go on walks regularly so I could fully appreciate the surroundings. Outside of our chamber rehearsals, we would also have sightreading nights. This made the environment very welcoming. Music is the way I express myself, so if I can do that with other people who feel the same, it creates a bond that you can’t really get by just talking to someone. Gstaad was able to provide that for me.

Orchestral rehearsal at the Cadenza International Summer Music School in London (see page 29)

Students at a Cambridge Early Music course

ANDREW WILKINSON PHOTOGRAPHY

A final performance at Encore Music Projects, held at the Yehudi Menuhin School

ROLAND HERRERA

OXFORD CELLO SCHOOL

IN MY EXPERIENCE Player

OXFORD CELLO SCHOOL ADULT COURSE, OXFORD

Petra Bijsterveld cello

In 2009 I started on the ‘Improvers’ course. It was only my fourth year of playing the cello. By 2014 I had entered what is now called the ‘Diploma’ course, and I’ve kept coming back ever since. The longer you go the more people you know, so it’s like a family now. I meet old friends each time I go back, of course new people are equally welcome. There are very few people who don’t come back! Every time I’ve been to the course, it’s given me a real boost for the year after. You’re playing intensively for a whole week, as well as having three individual lessons and constantly playing with other people. When you realise how much you’ve managed to improve, you can build on that the rest of the year.

The week is very full-on. Along with individual lessons, you play in a small ensemble with others of your level. The organisers know our abilities and are very skilled at putting people together appropriately. We have cello orchestra every day, in which players from all the adult courses play, making it a great motivator. You also have several rehearsals with one of the brilliant pianists to prepare for your masterclass or performance if that’s part of what you're doing. Every course also offers technique sessions focusing on different aspects of playing. The week ends with an informal concert.

One of my most memorable moments was playing an arrangement of the Popper Requiem for six cellos. The tutors doubled the parts, making an ensemble of twelve players. They really carried the sound and it was a great experience. The fact that the tutors, who are such good players themselves, are willing to give their time to teach and encourage amateurs like us is very heart-warming.

Painting the Rehearsal Orchestra at London's Henry Wood Hall in 2018

COURTESY REHEARSAL ORCHESTRA

A masked performance at the Lake George Music Festival in New York

STEPHANIE BARTIK

Tutor Scott Jackson takes a quartet lesson at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont

AMANDA STENROOS

STEPHEN BARTON

IN MY EXPERIENCE Player

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL, VERMONT, US

Justin DeFilippis violin

Without the summers at Green Mountain, my level wouldn’t have been raised quickly enough to consider going into music professionally. I felt a big boost in my playing ability every time I attended. The exposure to chamber music and disciplined structure for solo practice have stuck with me to this day. I attended in 2007, 2009 and 2011, and although I was at the younger end of the age range, I enjoyed interacting with all students up through graduate school. It’s difficult to find a summer academy with such a strong focus on solo practice as well as chamber music. Every morning from 8pm to noon was dedicated to individual practice, and the staff would come knocking on the doors to check we were practising. If you’ve never done that, it feels impossible, but after a week or so, it becomes part of your routine, and you feel really accomplished by the afternoon. This makes you feel like you can do anything if you work hard enough, making you more positively inclined to working intensively and overcoming obstacles throughout the next year.

I performed a full string quartet for the first time at Green Mountain. It was Shostakovich's Third Quartet, and I am still close to the other players. This planted the seeds for what I would do later – I'm now playing full time in the Balourdet Quartet. The festival introduced me to so much repertoire:

I remember being so excited to see live performances of Verklärte Nacht and Souvenir de Florence. It was the first immersive chamber experience I had, and I learnt invaluable professional skills as a result.

While working in depth for many of our concerts, I had to process and retain knowledge quickly in shorter rehearsal periods. Both skills are great to have as a professional. For students wondering whether to take part, I would say: give yourself the gift of taking music seriously for these four weeks. I really remember those summers fondly.